To Be Set Free
by BelieveInKi1214
Summary: The Halliwells are dead... No, they're in hiding. The Elders don't know where they are; the entire family is scattered around the U.S. But, Bella, the last line of the Warren-Halliwells', has to make a tough choice; to remain in hiding without using her powers to save the innocents, or to help valuable lives... and be considered a hero as she burns on the stake along with the rest?
1. Prologue

**Book 1. The Power of Three**

_**Prologue**_

* * *

It all started at the beginning, really.

But, that leads us to question, when was the beginning? To be honest, not one of us has a stable clue, our ideas always change each time we read up on it.

My family is more rock stable than the history of witches could even come close to being. So, I guess that should be our beginning.

I shall start with my thousand-times great-grandmother, though by now, I really _should_ refer to her as my greatest ancestor. She began all of this.

Her name was Melinda Warren, and though her mother and father, Charlotte Warren and Lawrence Cutler dabbled in the magicks themselves, it really started with Mel.

You see, she practiced in the arts of telekinesis, molecular immobilization, and premonitions, and created the book of shadows which is to now be guarded by my last remaining family of my great-aunt, Prue Halliwell, who is one of the sisters of my grandmother, Piper Marie Halliwell and their other sisters Phoebe and Paige. But, I'll explain that soon.

The arts our greatest ancestor, Mel, practiced in was crazily passed down through tough generations of women in the Warren-Halliwell family line until it finally was passed to Piper, Prue, and Phoebe as three separate powers, and when great-aunt Prue staged her death and was banished by the council of the Powers that Be, the Power of Three (thats what it came to be called) was diminished by default.

Well, like I was saying earlier; my other great-aunt, Paige? Her last name wasn't Halliwell at first. It still isn't. Paige Mathews grew up as an orphan, not knowing that she was half-witch, that is, until the Source of All Evil attacked her. And, by her being attacked and re-awakening her powers, and Piper searching for a lost witch, thinking that Prue is dead-everyone that knew Prue thought that-the Power of Three was born again! Hooray!

Oh yeah, I did say that the Book of Shadows was with my last remaining family...

See, here comes that faking a death thing again... Piper, Phoebe and Paige were forced into hiding as well, meaning they staged their deaths, and they also staged my mom and uncle's deaths and they all claimed different identities so we can live a normal life without being on the run, not that we have anything to run from yet; it's just that the Halliwells should not exist anymore yet, _I'm_ the last line.

Questions?

Who am I? I am Isabella Marie Swan, daughter of witch, Melinda Halliwell, now being referred to as Renee Higginbotham-Dwyer as she was married to Charlie Swan.

Oh, and my family's surname had to change to fit our new family name.

Three decades ago the entire Halliwell family was killed in a brutal house fire, not one of them survived... well, you guys know the truth.

I suppose I should tell you _how_ the Power of Three diminshed... my grandma, Piper (Marie Higginbotham) married a whitelighter, Leo, so my mother and uncle Wyatt are half-witch half-whitelighter , like Paige, who didn't have the same father as her sisters, being the child of Sam and Patty ... anyway, since they were the halfies of two magical beings, they were able to keep their powers, and since the world believes our line to be long gone, everyone in my family still has their powers. Including me. And since there's so many of us, the Power of Three didn't fit anymore, but since Renee was the last to have kids, I inherited the power of three.

Right now, my huge family of witches and whitelighters are spread out and away from California. My mother, who divorced my father a long time ago remarried to a man named Phil, was finally getting a honeymoon with said man. And I, feeling bad that they never actually had any real alone time since they got married, shipped myself to live with my father for the remainder of my highschool career to suffer in Forks, Washington.

Speaking of which, my chief of police father who decided to pick me up from the airport in his cruiser finally rolled the car to a stop in front of his two-story home where a pitch black olds mobile looking car sat in the driveway...

I think it's obvious to say that its caught my attention, seeing as the house looked the same as Renee and I had left it. I couldn't contain my curiosity as my fingers inched toward my handle in anticipation. "You get a new car, Ch-Dad?"

I've never seen it before, he must have just gotten it... the thing is, I've been dying to get my own car since I lived in Phoenix with my mom and Phil and was finally old enough to drive, but I never came close to saving up what all savings funds I recieved from Child Support sent from Charlie that I needed to get one. I tried to keep my frustration down at the thought that he might have got it for me, and I tried even harder to contain the excitement that tried to bubble over. Charlie knows my appeals, I'll give him that.

"For you, yeah," but seeing the disappointed look on my face, he hurried to smooth things over. "Bells, it didn't cost me one cent! It's my old car from the old days; an Impala. You remember Billy Black?"

It took me a moment to recall him from when Charlie used to drag me fishing with him and Billy and Rachel and Rebeckah Black... and Jacob. I slowly nodded once foggy, unclear images emerged.

"His son is a mechanic in the making; fixed up what needed to be done to the car for sixty-five dollars, it was finished in a week," he grinned proudly, and I found myself thawing at the happy smile on his face and I smiled in response.

"What year is it?"

Not that I really care, a car is a car.

"1967."

My hand gripped the handle tighter before I pulled it back and pushed the door open, slowly walking to the car with all of my belongings in my large suitcase being taken care of by Charlie, without my asking him to, and I began to check the car out feeling admiral.

"It's beautiful..." I breathed once I gave it a once over, and now I sit in the driver's seat appreciatively looking out the windshield.


	2. Fortifying

**1. Fortifying**

The night passed by quickly. It was spent with me prepping dinner for Charlie and I, consisting of fish lasagna. My things were already situated in my room, and I even had time to make one of the two bathrooms that I claimed for myself more homely, feeling lucky that Charlie and I didn't have to share a bathroom.

Charlie and I decided last night that I would go to school today, and later we would invite Billy and his son over for a fish-fry dinner, seeing as Charlie and Billy had caught so many fish the day before and we would still have plenty left even after I cook most of it. There's just so many…

As I finally fully woke up, I looked over toward my closet, getting out of bed. I had to fight the strong urge to orb my clothes to me, though, and I sighed as I disappointedly walked toward my closet, yanking out a pair of comfortable ripped skinny jeans and a long-sleeved royal-blue shirt, grabbing my toiletries on the way to my bathroom.

Once I was showered, I ran down the stairs to where I expected to find my keys hanging on the key holder. I already knew that Charlie wasn't going to be there, he told me last night that he has to be in at work early today, so I wasn't upset when I saw that he isn't here to hand me the keys. Taking the keys, I eyed them, noticing that he added another key—the duplicate to his house key—and I smiled, feeling at home already.

—

_Charlie was right_, the school was only a turn and a short drive away from most of the residents of Forks. Though with this town, it wasn't much of a surprise since the population numbers are seriously low. This is the town that Renee and I escaped; the others, not so much.

I pulled into the school's nearly completely vacant parking lot, pulling my Impala to a park, and tried to calm the nerves that I've been hiding. I should have dealt with this fear earlier. But seriously, what if I get so nervous, that I blow up a clock or something? _Not that I can._ Or what if I accidentally astro-project myself? Or get a vision that I haven't actually been known to have?

Getting a slow grip as I held tight to reality, my thoughts gathered. _I need to calm down_. Our powers, witches powers, are tied to our emotions. And it really isn't that big of a deal. In reality, I've only known myself so far to be able to orb myself and objects, freeze small things, and I'm _supposed_ to be able to get premonitions… Even then, my powers aren't strong enough to activate themselves on their own from my _little_ emotions alone, and even if they could, I barely can control my powers enough to call them forth without too much effort, so how would my emotions be able to do it? If anything would have happened, I would need to call Renee—the old fashioned way. Letting realization settle in, I finally got out of my car to see that there were two other cars in the parking lot now.

And one boy standing not four feet away from the rear of my Impala, almost scaring me into orbing out, or worse, freezing my heart.

"Hey, you must be the new girl, Isabella Swan?" he asked with a friendly-sounding voice. And upon hearing his voice, I let myself calm down as I looked him over, mentally taking note of him. Blonde hair, candy-blue eyes, baby-faced pretty boy, easily.

"Bella," I corrected with a small smile.

After he saw my smile, his own grew a little more. And at the sight of that, my own diminished slowly at the eagerness he showed. _Too eager_. I had to keep myself from frowning, though.

"Do you need help… or need me to show you where to go…?"

"The office?" I asked, making my small even smaller to make him realize that I'm not interested in anything that he might be, and he seemed to get it as he pointed me to a small building that seemed to sit forefront and center of all the rest. "Thank you," I murmured as I made my way toward the building.

—

The office lady's name was Ms. Cope. She's a dyed red-headed middle-aged lady with a few extra curves than some other people with a small challenge with height. She had a friendly, though gloom-induced soft attitude toward whoever seemed to greet her; easily fitting into this town way more than I did, even _with_ my pale skin.

She easily went through an orientation for me, pointing out on a map where all my classes were after she gave me my schedule, telling me to come back to her after I received a signature from all of my teachers by the end of the day.

By lunch time, I had five signatures, and I only needed two more. A girl that was in all of my classes-Jasmine, I think?-insisted on escorting me to lunch, and me, not knowing anyone at this place besides her and Mike, decided 'well, why not?', and she all but dragged me to the cafeteria, introducing me to her friends the second we reached their table where I soon was re-informed that her name was in fact not Jesminica, but Jessica. Jessica Stanley, she lives down the street from me, apparently.

"So guys, this is Bella Swan, the new girl," Jessica introduced with a big wide, fake smile on her face, more fitting for a child that just received a shiny toy and wants to show off to their friends.

I smiled a small smile and waved a small wave, sticking to the only girl that I _know_'s side, allowing for Jessica to continue with the intros.

"Bella, this is Angela, Ben, Eric, Lauren, and Tyler," in order they sat and it was easy to tell who was who, so I nodded my greeting to them, seeing that only four out of the five seemed remotely friendly, and that Lauren just seemed disinterested from the moment I walked in. _Her attitude suits her just fine_, I thought uncontrollably.

And just when I thought Jessica was going to dismiss me being the topic of discussion for something more interesting, she started speaking again once the introductions were through.

"So, Bella, where did you come from?" she settled herself by Mike, who she didn't bother introducing because she saw him introduce himself to me earlier, with a screwed up look on her face might I add…

"Phoenix, Arizona," I answered, trying my hardest to stay polite.

"Phoenix? Isn't that city… sunny…?" Lauren questioned with a raised dirty blonde eyebrow that didn't match her bleached-blonde hair.

"Yes, it is."

"Then, shouldn't you be tanned?" Jessica joined.

"My family on my mother's side is albino," I shrugged. It was partially a joke. My mother is half-white lighter, her skin is lighter than others naturally, so she gets artificial tans; but I never bothered to. "I guess I just inherited it."

"What a freak," Jessica laughed with a smile that seemed friendly, and she attempted to show me that she isn't trying to get rid of me, but implying a _friendly_ joke. I didn't laugh.

But, my eye was drawn immediately to the other side of the room, where I saw movement, flashes of skin even paler than my own, and I looked just quick enough to see that they made their way to a table, and were already sitting down. And out of the other corner of my eye I saw that Mike was conversing with the other guys at our table when he nodded my way and spoke a little snidely.

"Looks like she's caught sight of the Cullen's already," he jibed.

Jessica, looking a little smug for once looked toward where my eyes never left, out of curiosity, and she started to nail me with the gossip. "The ones you're staring at? They're antisocial. The Cullens'; the adopted children of Doctor Carlisle Cullen, and his wife, Esme Cullen, since Esme can't have children. I heard that the two icy-blue-eyed blondes? Rosalie and Jasper Hale are Esme's niece and nephew, but since their parents died, Esme took them in. The other two, Emmet and Alice McCarty were siblings, and the last, the gorgeous one with the red-bronze hair, and amazingly beautiful green eyes? That's Edward Mason."

She saw that I was fighting to catch up, so she hurriedly fixed everything up for me.

"Of course, they all go by Cullen, not their actual surnames," it was a small warning, I guess. But she was near nervously laughing by the end when she said, "and, if I were you, I wouldn't waste my time on any of them."

I tried to raise a brow in question and my guess is that my efforts weren't wasted completely since Lauren jumped in to save her friend from explaining something that she really couldn't.

"They're all together…" she frowned, leaving it at that.

"And Edward doesn't date," Jessica was finally finished laughing, settling to get a sulk in.

_I wonder when he turned her down_, I ducked my head, finally letting my eyes leave the Cullens.

Before she could get in another excuse for why I shouldn't 'waste my time with them' the bell rang, and the thought of even bothering with them completely left my mind, seeing how rude and shallow these girls are made me doubt any of these other kid's attitudes. What were they? Brought up in a bubble where nothing else actually happens for them to think before judging anyone else?

I got to my feet slower than everybody else, noticing that Angela Weber lagged a little behind the snobbies as well, probably deciding that now is a good time to try to converse with me without the other girls' interference.

"So you've met the two wicked Wiccas of the west," Angela chuckled at a small inside joke, her friendly eyes now meeting my panicking one at the Wicca reference that she used.

My heart started racing for a second before I realized that she was only joking, and I laughed it off. "So that's what you guys call them?"

"Yeah," Angela smiled warmly. "They may seem nice, but really, they'll start to eat you alive if you let them walk all over you. It's good to see that you didn't really have an effect after they tried you. Be ready for Lauren's claws though, it looks like you've caught her boyfriend's attention, Tyler; and Mike's interested as well—not good. Jessica likes him," she warned.

"And, I'll let you be assured that I'm not interested in either of them," I laughed beside her and she giggled as well.

"I suppose not, but I don't know if _they'll_ understand that."

It wasn't until we stopped outside the door of the Biology room that I realized that Angela must be going to the same class as I am and my smile widened considerably, I liked her presence; it felt natural to me. But I couldn't, for the life of me, understand why. "Here's our stop," I took a guess.

"Yeah," she didn't stop smiling though, and it appeared that I was right when she pushed the door open and I allowed her to walk in first, choosing to stay by the door and look over my surroundings before I enter unarmed, and unsuspecting.

It turns out that Edward has this class as well, and he's one of the only people in the class when I walked in. He sat in the back, his green eyes straight ahead, on the front of the class, unseeingly it seemed like. The teacher was at his desk, looking over something that might be the roster, of some sort.

Seeing it as safe, I walked further in the class, keeping my eyes in front of me so that I don't trip. "Mr. Banner?"

He chanced a look up at me from his roster and looked me over as if trying to figure out of he's seen me before or not before deciding that he's never seen me before. "Ah, new student, right? Isabella Swan?"

"Bella," I corrected automatically, and I nodded with a small smile, handing him my schedule and my sign slip, easily getting my sixth signature.

"Well, the only open seat we have is next to Edward, in the back…" he began. "You can't miss it…"

My eyes have already made themselves known to the amazingly beautiful green eyes that belonged to Edward Cullen though, and if it hadn't been for the slight scowl on his face, I would have worried that my heart would actually freeze from the way his beauty forced my being to take notice of the attraction.

In that moment, my sight left me before another view took its place, giving my spectators vague reason for a shocked gasp escaped my lips.


	3. White Lights

**AN: I forgot to explain a few small things in the Prologue chappy; I know that in reality Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige aren't old enough to be grand relatives to a 17-year-old, but please keep an open mind; they **_**have**_** time traveled before... the rest will be explained in the story. :)**

**I hope you enjoy-! **

**-BelieveInKi1214**

* * *

**2. White Lights **

_Pristine white lights flowered in front of me__—__I must have orbed. Apphrension flooded my senses, and then there was the undeniable flash of confusing vision that interrupted my view before. _

_Panic. Yes, lots of panic; everything flew by my eyes quickly until I stopped running in time to see what I was supposed to see. _

_Eventually I saw a white-blonde haired girl getting ready to get bit by _**something** _that shockingly resembled a human. But why would I see this if I wasn't meant to save her? _

"Is something the matter?" Mr. Banners voice sounded, but I was too gone to answer.

Before I could get a full glimpse of understanding on _where_ I was in my vision or even see who my innocent was, I found myself back in the classroom again, staring into Edward Cullen's curious emerald eyes. It even seemed like less than a minute has passed in the entire moment that felt like five minutes to me.

"No, just shocked that there's already someone back here is all..." I replied. _I need to ask aunt Phoebe how premonitions work_, was the thought running through my mind as I distractedly continued my journey to my assigned seat. _Who was that girl? And the guy? I didn't see either of their faces... Damn it! _

I took very little notice to see that Edward now sat rigidly on the far edge of his seat. To me, my reaction seemed a bit delayed, since I only thought enough about Edward's posture to raise my brow in slight irritation which might have imitated his own frustration that he flashed me. But that was soon gone as quickly as it came as well because now he flashed a full on set of pearlescent white teeth that reminded me of some sort of carnivorous predator. _Creepy_. His grin widened.

"Bella Swan, is it?" his voice was soft and velvety and all around as attractive as one would assume with his sweetheart-gentlemanly, yet dangerous good-looks, and when my eyes snapped back to his I was shocked to see an underlying emotion of something similar to strain. "Or did you prefer something else?"

"What?" I began to realize that he took my shocked silence to mean that I wasn't okay with my preferred nickname and I shook my head slowly."No, Bella's fine; I answer to that."

He didn't need much convincing, though his expression said otherwise as he smiled uncertainly at me. "I'm Edward Cullen."

I stared in wonder into his 'amazingly green' eyes, as Jessica had described them, for moments longer as I tried to come to a conclusion for the reason meeting his gaze triggered my first premontion. _Is he some type of demon? _I nearly dismissed the thought as soon as I caught a quick flash in his eyes but the way he seemed to react to my inner curiosity had me feel doubtful that I wasn't very far off.

"What are—?" I almost asked the question out loud before the room started to get louder in volume and eventually the entire classroom was filled with students. _No way I can ask him now._

Edward, who had been staring into my eyes since our short conversation had begun, turned swiftly away from me to face the front of the room where Mr. Banner was quieting the class down. His attention thwarted.

I sighed quietly, doing the same and silently thanking the deities that my school day was almost over.

—

To my luck, classes only lasted forty-five minutes and the dismissal bell for this hour seemed to ring its chimes after a little _too long_, considering my entire hour was spent with my seated partner nearly glaring me into spontaneous combustion.

Everyone was up and out of the classroom not five seconds after the signal rang our dismissal except for me and Edward, but I wasn't paying him many attention as I walked slowly behind him to prolong my journey to gym class with plenty of reason; _I really need to orb to Aunt Phoebe's_ (publicly going by Diane) _she can help me with this..._

What I wasn't expecting was for Edward to disappear from my sights before he reappeared swiftly, holding me to the outside of the doorway of Biology as he pinned me with an accusing look, his cold hands roughly pressing my shoulder into the equally cold brick. Even then, it seemed like he was holding some of his strenghth back.

_Not human!, _my thoughts screamed as my eyes widened.

"Who are you, _really_?" he hissed out under his breath, his pearly whites now seeming more dangerous than I originally thought as his fangs became a clear sight; his eyes going black in comparison. And despite the ferocity in his eyes, his demeanor didn't strike as hostile, but more over upset, and a little protective.

I felt my legs diminish, and soon after my abdomen and the rest of my body followed as my body spirited and blue-white lights transported me a few feet away from him as I reappeared with the same lights.

I hadn't escaped. I wasn't planning to. My own curiosity was piqued. His eyes found me soon after I reappeared, probably feeling my energy signal, and his eyes went as wide as saucers when he saw me unharmed, and expecting as I waited for him to speak.

"Whitelighter," he didn't spit it out like a curse like most demons would, instead he looked immensely guilty and he stood down, but still looked at me with curious eyes.

"Partly..."

He raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Only half whitelighter," I pointed to myself. It doesn't matter that my father is human; my mother is half whitelighter and half witch. The magic doesn't split with my mortal parts since witches are mortals with magical aspects. It's just like how Victor and Patty had the Charmed Ones and they came out full witch. You can't split magic; either you have it or you don't...

"The other half?"

I didn't answer, instead choosing to walk to my next class, not even thinking about the guy who decided to catch up to me and walk me to class without my permission.

"You must know then..." he started a little secretively, leaving what he thought should be kept quiet, unsaid between the two of us.

"Know what?" my brows raised as I kept walking with my eyes ahead of me to prevent an evitable case of tripping.

He stopped me, wrapping his firm hand once around my forearm to turn me to face him, meeting my gaze. Feeling the cold through the fabric of my shirt, heat rushed to re-warm the spot and I reluctantly pulled away, but kept the eye contact between us.

"What you are, you mean?" I asked, referring to the time I saw his teeth flash and narrowed my eyes. "I have a pretty good idea. Though why you've all enrolled in a _school_ surprises me. Is this your 'territory' or something?"

His eyes lost the darkness in favor of being stunningly bright and he smiled. "Of sorts, I suppose. Aren't whitelighters assigned to witch charges?"

I almost scowled at how light this guy spoke of a whitelighter's duty; _Why is he even still talking to me? _I almost replied to his question, but I was cut off in an instant astonishingly.

"You whitelighters are supposed to blend in with the people surrounding you, to protect your charges if they arent prepared yet," his tone became informative and I wondered where he was going with this before his direction took a surpirising sharp U-turn and his voice hardened. "My family is doing the same, blending in—if only for a peaceful and normal life; if you lead any prepared witches or any other charges you might have towards my family, I will find a way to be rid of you."

I gasped in shock but before I could get an actual word in ato defend myself against ahis unfair, but not unheard of assumption, Cullen hastily left me to head in the direction of his next class.

_What is it with him?_ I frowned, starting toward the gym. _The _paranoid_ vampire?_

—

It was just a few moments after school and I sat in my Impala just down the road from Charlie's house as I thought about the vision I had with renewed motivation. Luckily for me, the vision showed the incident occuring around dawn; but I couldn't guess where it occurred even if I would have lived here all my life; it was too dark to see aanything besides what I could see, and the scenery consisted of mainly trees. It wasn't that much of a helpful description, I know.

_I'm not even supposed to_... I could still remember the time I first felt heroic when I was fourteen, dropping by for a speedy visit with Renee to see her mother and aunts who looked young enough to be her sisters.

The scolding rang clear in my great aunt's voice.

"We aren't the great heroes anymore," my great aunt Prue told me when I felt inspired from their past stories. "And if we act as heroes now, the Elders will be alerted, and our past selves will be _punished_. You won't exist if you make the mistake to save anyone, Bella-bean. We need a life of _peace_."

Aunt Phoebe was never as strict in acts that required saving lives, which is why it's lucky that she lived on her own in New York City.

"I'm going to be in trouble for this," my voice came off as burdened, but my spirit felt free as I willed myself to find Aunt Phoebe and allow my spirit to be guided to her in my immediateness.

While shimmering through the air, I saw that she was in her apartment with some guy through her opened window, but the guy wasn't around her, he had walked into the kitchen.

Feeling relief at my great timing, I allowed myself to orb into my corporeal form so that I was standing in the alley directly beside her apartment as the white-blue lights disappeared into my skin. Once I was complete, I walked around to her door and I knocked three times.

There was quite a bit of shuffling on the inside and I felt my inner excitment that just started up dwindle into nothing but pure nervousness.

"Hold on, ahold on," her voice called familiarly through her thin walls. "I'm coming!"

I heard footfalls—ten exactly—and then there was the sound of locks being unlocked as I mentally braced myself for my great aunt to find me randomly standing there on her porch.

"Who is—" the door was swung open and she stopped mid-question as her eyes widened in shock and fear. "Bella?"


	4. Innocents?

**3. Innocents? **

I couldn't tell if she was so happy to see me that she oozed fear, or that she was so cautious to keep her excitement at bay that she portrayed it as a cross emotion between joy and disappointment in seeing me that it betrayed itself to the emotion of fear... I guess there's not really much of a difference, but, Aunt Phoebe has always been hard to read.

She looked cautiously into the alleyway to be sure that there hadn't been anyone around to see me magically appear out of nowhere before she reached for my hand and yanked me in to her appartment building, bolting the door shut behind us.

"Bella," she said, finally deciding on an emotion to put up front; it was easy to see she was upset now. "What are you doing here!? Does your mom know you're here? Does Piper?"

"I'm staying with my dad now," I replied, carefully watching her reaction.

"Uh-huh... What's bothering you right now?" You couldn't hide anything from a psychic empath, even though we can only get visions of our innocents. She just knows me and my emotions well enough to discern when there is a problem. "There isn't anything wrong with Charlie, is there?"

"No, no," the look on aunt Phoebe's face was starting to make me nervous, so I rushed to explain. "I finally have my second charmed power!"

Aunt Phoebe shushed me as she looked to the back room to be sure that her date didn't hear my excited outburst. "Not so loud," she sternly told me, but she leaned in closer out of curiosity anyway. "What is it? Mine or Prue's or did they give you some power that makes no sense?"

"Your original power," I said softly. "That's why I'm here; how do your visions work...?"

* * *

She explained to me every detail, about how usually we will get a vision, but we're not always meant to save the innocent, but we're to be aware of what's going on after I told her about my vision. But our great-aunt-niece bonding time was cut there, however, when she solemnly explained that I probably wasn't meant to save the innocent that I saw in my vision.

I frowned.

"Just go back to your father, Bella, we're supposed to be remaining on the low, remember?" she lifted herself from the tan leather loveseat after I did and she pulled me in for a hug.

The both of us must have forgotten about her male home guest, because he was soon in the living room looking somber, but with a _different_ feel to his persona than the usual that Aunt Phoebe likes to keep around. I wouldn't dare ever say this to her, but the air around this man bothered me, right down to his arrogant smile.

"So you must be Bella Halli—er.. Swan, right?"

My eyes narrowed in response. Did aunt Phoebe seriously tell this guy who I am? My eyes landing on an alert Phoebe was the answer to my question. "Who the hell are you?" my voice was acid as I prepared to orb his body parts to other, farther places across the world, where he couldn't possibly reach them.

His teeth were bared in response: fangs. Is he a vampire, too? Aunt Phoebe was watching him carefully as well. "The name is Demetri... and you are two of the legendary witches in the Charmed Ones line... Phoebe Halliwell, and Isabella, daughter of the second twice-blessed child, Melinda Halliwell..."

Arms raised, both mine and aunt Phoebe's. Hers was in a stopping motion, though. She was planning on using my emotions for my freezing power, I bet. But before she could, Demetri held his hand out, too, aerodynamically delivering her a blow without actually touching her, sending her to the floor across the room with a loud, shocked shriek escaping her lips.

I saw that he was preoccupied with Phoebe. So, focussing my attention, I formed my hand into a fist and reopened it to reveal the fist-sized organ that I held in my hand after the white lights of my orbing disappeared. His heart. I stared expectantly as the man glared back at me with a smirk rising the higher curves of his mouth, he looked _too_ smug for someone whose battery was just yanked from him.

"I am already dead, young one," his eyes, which had been hazel before, were charcoal in unkempt anger, but it seemed to be directed at something else, since both Phoebe and I have seen what he could do to us had he felt like it. I put his heart back where I found it, noticing that his eyes weren't on me anymore, and that he barely noticed that recieved his dead organ back.

Taking this chance, seeing as I could feel some explanation coming on, I ran over to Phoebe's side and crouched down beside her to see how badly she was hurt.

She wasn't too bad, though, just a scratch on her forehead that was hardly even bleeding.

"_What_ do you want?" she hissed out, holding her side. She sat up now, eyeing Demetri carefully.

"Just for you to hear me out..." he trailed off and only continued when he saw it fit. "Obviously, I know who you are. But you know nothing of me. I am a guard from Volterra, for the Volturi. A few of us are rebelling, and there are a few clairevoyants in the guard that knew of the four Charmed witches that escaped purgatory through time travel..."

"Your point?" I frowned.

"You see, the Volturi have rule over vampires across the universe. There are multitudes of vampires that were reborn with special abilties like my own, and the lead brother, Aro, has plan to get as many of us as he can. He already has a tie breaker. Chelsea, she makes us feel loyalty to the brothers. And before they decide to rule the universe with the few other mythological beings that they've managed to capture, it's time they be put down."

Phoebe seemed to gnaw on the inside of her mouth in indecision and instantly I knew she'd slept with him and possibly even gained feelings for him. She probably even seen him in all this time that she was "travelling the world". Really, I couldn't blame her. I had a run in with a vampire earlier, and I hadn't done a single thing, but it was certainly getting on my nerves that she was bothering to think about this low life killer... I could easily feel his killing nature in the air around him, and I don't even have Aunt Phoebe's empathetic power.

"Fine," Phoebe answered at last. "We—just Bella and I, will help you—" she must have felt my aversion to this idea because her gaze narrowed on mine as she continued to tell him what's what. "—but what's your end of the deal? What's in it for us?"

"The Elders won't be on your tracks; no word will get around about you helping the vampires, Diane..." he smirked after he walked a few steps toward us, and then leaned down to meet Phoebe's eyes carefully.

* * *

He left.

I stayed in my place, staring down at Phoebe in incredulity, waiting afor some kind of explanation on her part. I knew not to doubt my great aunts' judgement because overall they always seemed to pull through, but after what my favorite Great Aunt had just recently agreed to, I couldn't help but question her decision. "Aunt Phoebe?"

"Bella, this stays between you and me, got it?" her voice was urgent, but nervous, and instead of verbally answering, I nodded my head. She would have been satisfied with either, really. Her brown eyes lit up in grateful appreciation and she smiled as she spoken again showing her exhaustion after I pulled her up to her feet. "You should really be getting home, Charlie must be worried sick about you."

I hugged her to me, speaking softly, "call me when I'm needed aunt Phoebe..."

"Will do, Bells."


	5. Deceit

**4. Deceit**

The same white lights that transported me to my great-aunt's home materialized my body right back into my car that sat in Charlie's lot once more before disappearing in a swirl of orbs, leaving my completed entire body in its wake. The sky showed my timed arrival as just a little past nightfall as I looked into the sky wearily. I wasn't gone for too long, but I still took quite a long time.

Sighing at the new carefully structured drama that just made itself known at Phoebe's apartment, I removed my key from the ignition before I made my way inside to cook dinner and prepare for bed.

* * *

The next morning, after I got ready for school, I sat in my car at Forks high, thinking over what Demetri said. The vampires are rebelling. _What would that mean for the rulers, the Volturi? And what would it mean if aunt Phoebe and I get involved? _Demetri said that the Elders wouldn't detect us helping them.._. But what if this is a trap? _

Looking at the time on my phone, I noticed that there were finally more than eleven cars in the lot, and I climbed from my car to head to my first hour class. As I walked on the sidewalk, I was soon unexpectedly confronted by three of the Cullens blocking the rest of my way to English III. The blonde constipated guy, the muscular guy, and the pixie-like girl.

"Bella Swan, right?" I had soon realized that this girl's name was Alice.

I nodded my response with raised eyebrows.

"So this is the whitelighter Eddie had a run-in with yesterday," the muscular one, Emmet, spoke with a hint of amusement. "It's not everyday that a family of darklighter-vampires cross one without the whitelighter sending their charges on us."

Alice glowered at Emment in resentment, but he only shrugged. And through my riddled shock, what he meant finally had sunk in. Darklighters are like predators to whitelighters... and there's a whole family of darklighter-vampire hybrids in this town? Just my rotten luck...

At my shocked expression and the few tiny steps that I took to separate me from them, Jasper, as Jessica had introduced him, smirked a little but asked the question no matter what he already knew, "So you didn't know what we are...? Edward did say that you didn't seem to care..."

Alice, having had heard enough from her brother Emmet and, I'm guessing mate, Jasper, stepped close enough to me so that I could see the sincerity clearly in her lively hazel eyes. "We're not like that, Bella, honest!" she frowned in seriousness. "Not all of us are even..." she looked around, a little too late, to check for prying ears before continuing. "Darklighters. Only three of us are. Besides, even though we have darklighters in our family, none of them use their powers... we just want to be normal..."

In spite of everything she had said, I found myself taking steps back anyway, ready to orb myself if need be. "So... you three are..."

"Just vampires," Emmet winked, stepping forward a few steps closer to me.

This information really didn't reassure me. Anyone that saw Emmet in person would understand.

"So, why did you all just come up to me like that?" my eyes narrowed.

"Alice had a vision involving you," Jasper spoke again, though his eyes were concernedly placed on Alice; _yep, they're definitely together_.

I looked to Alice for some kind of confirmation, but all she did was shake her head and I heard her mental message loud and clear despite her not saying it. _Not now_.

I frowned, and started to walk around them, but Emmet caught my arm, pulling me to a stop.

"Sit with us during lunch; we'll tell you then," Alice smiled a little and I nodded.

"See you all... later," once Emmet let go, I walked away, murmuring under my breath. "I guess."

* * *

Fourth hour, Trigonometry, was when I was bombarded with a reality that went against everything I believed in. There I was, finishing my Trig homework when suddenly Jessica had turned to me from her side of the aisle and threw her pencil on my desk. Confused, I turned to meet her star-lit gaze in question when she started to whisper a quick: "Tell me about you and you know who later."

I honestly had no clue what the hell she was getting at, but I gave in and turned to keep doing my work.

That did it. Everything smoothed over, and Jessica had let me be for the remainder of the period. She didn't even ask for her pencil back, even though she _was_ the one to throw it to me in the first place.

But soon, the calm was over. The second the fourth hour dismissal bell rang, I was escorted out of class by the chipper brunnette girl and was dragged to a halt outside Mr. Varner's classroom.

"So?" Jessica's voice was a confusing cross between irritation and eagerness and I wasn't sure how to respond.

"So...?" I replied testily.

"Edward... or Emmet?" she demanded.

"What?!" I almost choked on my surprise.

"I saw you with Edward yesterday," she began to explain with a roll of her eyes. "And again, I saw you earlier today... I swear, they both were flirting with you."

Emmet? The hell? And most definitely, Edward wasn't flirting either. _He was basically threatening my life!_ _Major turn off!_ I grimaced at the thought and Jessica's suggestion before slightly smiling a fake smile at the girl without answering. _This is just ridiculous_.

"At least just tell me which one, you think, is hotter?" she tried to reason still as we began our walk to the cafeteria, where I am supposed to sit with Alice and her 'family'.

My answer required some serious thought, seeing as both Edward and Emmet were amazingly good looking. Unfortunately for Jessica, I made her wait for my opinion until we reached the center of the cafeteria. "Edward, by a margin."

Jess didn't reply as she thought over my opinion when we came to a pause as I looked for Alice and the rest. Conveniently, my eyes met up with foresty olive green eyes as the boy in question hung on my every word that I'm sure he'd heard one way or another with a slightly pleased smirk on his lips that seemed to fit the personality I'd pinned him with.

"Ah... he does have sexy eyes... and hair... and he looks like an absolute model; he's gorgeous," Jess amended as I made my way toward him. "Hey!-wait! Where are you going!?"

"I'll see you in Bio..." I offered over my shoulder as I edged closer to the Cullens' table.

When I walked, there was no nervousness present; just me, and my destination in mind as I thought of what the vision that Alice had could have been of, and if it were anything similar to the one I had yesterday...

I got closer to the table still, and when I finally made it, I briefly noticed that my eyes never left the bronze haired Cullen that kept his eyes on me as well.

"May I sit here?"


End file.
